SWAIA: Santa Fe Indian Market

Kevin Pourier

Oglala Lakota

Jewelry
Diverse Arts

I live and maintain a studio on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. I am Oglala Lakota. My art is all made out of Buffalo Horn. I believe that my work reflects who I am as a human being. Being fully aware of what it means to be human and having the ability to make the things I do is an empowering experience. I love creating my images so that they may make the viewer think, grow and also educate, hopefully, so there will be change in a world of misunderstanding. I try to pull the viewer in by putting them in Native Peoples shoes. My hope is that my work will also bring about healing by creating discussion. Native art has stereotypically been thought of as only portraying or replicating old design and images from the past. I work hard to show that we are contemporary people living here today and that we have a voice. This challenges me everyday to step out of that “box” that native art has been put in and create art that speaks and has power to change.